Connecticut western news., 1887-04-27
DEAD MANS CANON,
It was a warm day in April.

Charles Loften took car and rode out to the end of the line, then he walked on for some distance and turned up the hill to the left and took tho road which leads down through Dead Mans Canon.
 As he walked down the rough road he noticed little child playing around pile of wood which her father had been chopping.
 Farther down he saw two girls at a spring, and as the younger drank from a tin pail she said to her sister, "What splendid water that is"
 Two men who were drawing stone left their horses ani went to the girls for a drink.
 Some negroes were laughing and talking around rough house on the side of the bluff.
 All these things Loften noticed as he walked, aud he also noticed two men, evidently tramps, who sat on stone in 8 lonely part of the canon talking in low tones, which ceased entirely .aShe &came nearer.
 Loften went on through the canon and crossed the tracks to the brewery, where he was going to look at some new ma- chinery.
 After he had examined the machine he went up oa the roof of the building, from which there was m excellent view of the valley.
 He watched the river winding away past cultivated lands and patches of for est, past sandy flats and rocky bluffs. He noticed the tall sycamores, with their white bark, scattered over the valley. In the distance he could see the piled up stone and the tall masts of the derricks for moving it where great ridge was being built, and near by the cluster o1 houses covered with tar paper, where the workmen lived. On the other side was the city with its towers and chim- neys, and over all the dark cloud oi smoke curling upward. And then there
 was the river again, and more flats and
 more bluffs and moro cultivated land,
 forest and white parked sycamores.
 Loften went down and started fo
 home. As he went up the canon thu
 men still sat on the stone whispering to
 gether, and again stopped when he cam'
 near.
 Itwas growing dark. The men wh'
 had been drawing stone had left theil
 wagon by the road and gone for th
 night. He met one old negro carrying
 pail of water. There was no one talk
 ing before the house now. The spring
 was deserted, and the water ran quietl,
 down the hill. The little girl and tn
 man who had been chopping wood wer gone too.
 Near the head of the canon Lofte met we'll dressed man going down
 They nodded as they passed anu sai something about the bad walking. Loften noticed that black clouds wer gathering, and when he reached the to of the bluff it was quite dark. He too a car and went home, and as he went int his house he heard the roar of distar - thunder.
 As the flashes of lightning for secon . lumined the lower end of Dead Man | Canon we'll dressed man lay in the roa " near the rock where the two tramps ha q sat whispering together-but the tram1 !, were gone.
 if It was still moonlight when the qua rymen started for their work. i, The storm had gone by and the sl if was bright with stars. As they entered the canon the palir ., of the moon indicated that the sun wou ', soon be up and the sky was alread T, growing red in the east. A light mi :, foated among the tops of the sycamo o trees on the flats.
 70 Suddenly the men stopped. no Right before them on tho road lay no man. His clothes were soaked by u tb rain, which had fallen in terrents, al o, his white collar and cuffs were soil ,d with mud. His head was covered wi re mud and blood, and an ugly gash in ,r throat showed how he had died. rb One of them at once started for t bo t,wl to notify the authorities. ,. The coroner came and took charge f. the bo ly, and men were set at work |. try and discover the murderer. .5 Inquiry at the brewery brought o
 the fact that . strange man had be